Funeral home casket selection rooms have evolved as those in the industry have attempted to better meet the funeral customers' needs. The “traditional” presentation of product in a funeral home selection room was to simply place each casket on a bier and open the head end cap or lid of the casket to permit viewing inside the casket. As many caskets as possible were displayed in a selection room in order to maximize the number of product choices for the customer. Unfortunately, such a “traditional” presentation results in what has been referred to as a “sea of caskets” visual effect, which can be both distressing or alarming and confusing to the customer.
Advances in the design of funeral home selection rooms have taken the form of providing a plurality of alcove structures, either of a “modular” construction or of a “stick built” construction, in the funeral home selection room. Each alcove structure includes a vertical back wall and a pair of vertical, spaced apart wing walls cooperating with the back wall to form an alcove. A soffit may span the upper front edges of the wing walls, and lighting, for example track lighting, may be incorporated into the soffit. A two-tier casket rack is located within the alcove, the lower tier of the casket rack being a roll out rack permitting the lower casket to be rolled out from under the upper casket and the casket lid opened for display of the lower casket. Tasteful signage and the like is mounted on the back wall above the caskets. Such a construction, which is the subject of the assignee's U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,405,017 and 5,524,394, both hereby incorporated by reference herein, increases the number of caskets which can be displayed in a funeral home selection room, as well as greatly improves the “look and feel” of the casket presentations, thereby reducing the clutter and confusion of the so-called “sea of caskets” effect and providing a feeling of comfort to the families.
New construction and renovation costs being what they are, there is an ever-increasing need to increase the product density displayable in the funeral home selection room, without sacrificing comfort, convenience and look and feel of the casket display systems of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,405,017 and 5,524,394. To that end, the assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 7,036,196, hereby incorporated by reference herein, discloses a Display For A Casket Selection And/Or Viewing Room. This patent discloses the display of a plurality of casket portions along with a plurality of casket information modules. Each information module corresponds to one of the casket portions displayed and houses an insert displaying samples of the various features of the particular casket, for example, a portion of the cap panel, a photo of the casket, a fabric swatch of the casket fabric, etc. To access and view the casket samples displayed on the insert, a door to the module is opened, and the insert is slid out of the module.
By way of further advances, the assignee's U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0000926 A1, hereby incorporated by reference herein, discloses a Display For A Casket Selection Room. This application discloses a display for a casket selection room comprising a wall, a plurality of casket portions displayed on the wall, and a plurality of casket information modules displayed on the wall. Each information module corresponds to one of the casket portions and includes a photo of the casket, a portion of a cap panel of the casket and/or a fabric swatch of the casket. The photo, portion of the cap panel and/or fabric swatch are visible to the customer without opening the information module. The casket selection display of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0000926 A1 thereby provides further advantages above and beyond the casket selection display disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,036,196, for example obviating the need to open a door of the casket information module and remove the casket information insert in order to be able to view the same.
By way of still further advances, the Assignee's U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0155940 A1, hereby incorporated by reference herein, discloses A Display For A Casket Selection Room. That application, the commercial product of which is available from the assignee as its CORNERCOLUMN® display, discloses a display for a casket selection room comprising a base, a first display portion movably mounted to the base for swiveling movement relative thereto about a generally vertical axis, a plurality of casket portions representing a plurality of casket choices from which a customer may select mounted to the first display portion, a second display portion movably mounted to the first display portion for swiveling movement relative thereto about a generally vertical axis, and a plurality of casket ornaments representing a plurality of ornament choices from which the customer may select mounted to the second display portion. By swiveling the displays relative to one another, a customer can position a chosen ornament closely adjacent a chosen casket portion to obtain a general idea of how the casket and ornament combination will appear.
By way of yet further advances, the Assignee's MEANINGFUL MEMORIES® kiosk is an interactive system which seamlessly guides families through the selection process. Incorporating software methodology disclosed in the assignee's U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0073450 A1 titled Method Of Planning A Funeral Or Other Memorial Service and/or U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0070145 A1 titled Visual Funeral Planning System, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein, the MEANINGFUL MEMORIES® kiosk guides the families through a welcoming message, provides suggestions for concepts and themes for meaningful services, offers guidance in the selection of caskets or cremation products, and suggests personalization features that can add meaning to the service.
It is desirable to provide still further improvements in the area of casket display and selection.